Going Viral 101
Bauer College “Content Creation” Course to Teach Students How to Use Social Media for Business, Create Income Through Digital Accounts
This spring, University of Houston students can learn to leverage their social media skills to achieve business success through a “Content Creation” course offered by the C. T. Bauer College of Business.
The upper-level business elective is housed within the No. 1 ranked Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship and is being offered to all UH students, regardless of major. Spring 2026 will be the second time Bauer offers the course. Developed by Professor of Practice Kelly McCormick, the class teaches students how to monetize content creation and make it an entrepreneurial endeavor.
“The intent is to understand what works for content creation, understand how to make money with content creation and how to actually produce content,” McCormick said. “It can be from the perspective of you being a content creator that makes an income or having to make content to create revenue for your brand.”
Creating content online to generate a consistent income stream is more common than ever, McCormick said. As time has passed, she’s also seen social media presence become increasingly important for companies.
“The proliferation and wide use of social media, which seems to be still increasing at this point, makes it so much more imperative for brands to incorporate it into their marketing strategy,” she said. “This is something I think increases legitimacy and understanding of the brand itself.”
Management and marketing sophomore Fatima Nadeem took the “Content Creation” class in its first semester offered. Despite being a social media user prior to the course, Nadeem said it shifted her business perspective on the digital platforms.
“I have been on social media since I was in middle school,” Nadeem said. “I had an idea of what social media was like, but the class taught me a lot more about analytics and the actual process of making social media posts and tracking their performance. It was quite different from what I expected.”
After gaining a foundational knowledge of different social media platforms, the course encourages experiential learning by placing students into teams to craft their own content.
“It's very collaborative with students, and I give them a chance to work on whichever platform they find the most interesting,” McCormick said. “Getting the chance to work with other people who are creating content at the same time and seeing what best practices are being pushed by the algorithm is very helpful for them.”
Spring 2026 enrollment opens the week of Nov. 3. Students can consult with their academic adviser if they are interested in enrolling in “Content Creation.”
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